I have loved Bella since the begining! She has always been such a strong chracter and has helped me understand myself. In New Moon she actully helped me to save myself. So it is hard to read all of the negitive things said about her. But i understand where you all are coming from.

Yes Bella can be selfish, yes she makes many mistakes thrrough out the whole series! Heck she sometimes repeats her mistakes, she hurts others. Hey she is an 18 year old human!!! Heck i have made millions of mistakes and i knew what i was doing at the time. But i am human and sometimes being human means you might make the wrong choice. She isn't perfect and if she was i wouldn't like her. No one would. We like seeing ourselves in the chracters. And i know many of us Twilighter see ourselves in Bella. The good things and the not so good things. And i think in a way we expect Bella to be perfect to maybe make up for ourselves.

Some things i want to touch on: The thing with Kate i honestly i really don't think Bella was mad at her. i think Bella was mad at Herself. About how close the day was coming for the Volturi to arrive. And she still didn't have a grip on her power. She was angry at herself and took it out on Kate. be Honest how many of you have done something like that i know i have.

With Leah i understand why she yelled at Bella and Bella knew why she was being yelled at. But that doesn't mean that it hurts less.

Bella is emotional but who isn't i am glad she is. I love seeing the Human in her. And i believe that travels with her when she becomes a Vampire. I mean when you become a Vampire doesn't mean you are going to stop being like your human self in a way. It dosen't mean you are going to stop making mistakes. Trust me all of the Cullens have made their share of mistakes. Heck we saw one of Edward's Biggest mistakes in New Moon when he left Bella.

Bella is always going to be my favorit chracter. Because she is Bella. She follows her heart. And does what she can for her loved ones.

i see where you are coming from with your reasons for liking bella, and i am happy for you that you have found yourself in a character - that's an awesome feeling, isn't it?!

however, i don't share your opinion of her, i don't really think she has the strong qualities that even out her negative ones, but again, that's just me. i just don't think she's real strong. then again, she could be.

personally, i think bella's a little spoiled. she's never had anyone be mad at her and STAY mad at her for a while, because she only really interacts with people who love her. no one is ever very mean to her. no one yells at her. everyone is so concerned with protecting her. but it's getting yelled at, screwing up and being held accountable, having people treat us poorly and dealing with it, friends leaving, dealing with hard situations like that that make us strong. and no, i don't count the choice between edward and jacob in there. not that it wasn't hard, or painful, but she knew they both loved her, and that THEY were not going to hurt her, either one of them.

i think that can be attributed to bella's lack of a social life. i think bella is so afraid that she can't handle getting hurt that she's never really reached out, never gotten hurt, and never gotten strong. i think that's evident in the way that she reacted to edward's leaving in new moon. it has seemed ridiculous to me for a long time, but now i realize that really, that was the first time she'd lost someone close to her. she hadn't developed any strength.

i agree with you about kate. although, bella does that a lot. she did it to jacob too. but kate knew what she was doing - she WANTED bella to get angry with her. she knew she needed the motivation to use her shield. for everyone else to get all annoying was silly though - did they really think she'd hurt nessie?? come on.

with leah, again, i don't have a problem with her crying, it hurts like hell to be criticized. what i DO have a problem with is that bella can't take criticism, but again, she never has had to. but that doesn't mean she shouldn't have taken that criticism to heart, and tried to change. she gets really upset when she's criticized, by someone or herself, then forgets it. that's not healthy.

i agree with you that i was glad bella still had all of her emotion when she became a vampire. it was a huge relief.

so, all in all, bella has all the potential in the WORLD to be incredibly strong and selfless and all that great stuff. she's just never been taught how.

I think Bella's behavior towards Kate was entirely understandable and justifiable--Kate was threatening to hurt her child! Yes, she was frustrated and tired and wished that she could control the power, so Kate's remarks annoyed her. She was trying really hard, and regardless of who you are, if you're giving something everything you have and people not only don't acknowledge that but in fact say you aren't trying hard enough, it's a frustrating and anger-inducing experience. But I thought she responded completely appropriately when Kate acted like she was going to shock Renesmee. Bella went into what my mom calls "mother bear" mode. Bella wasn't willing to make her daughter a test case for the experiment, and as her mother she should have the right to say no to Kate on that matter. This wasn't about Bella having her feelings hurt. This was about Bella protecting her daughter from a vampire who was threatening to hurt her, and Bella had every right to be furious. When I read that part I was actually angry at Edward for going along with it--Bella was a newborn and easily could have lost control. It was only her own mental strength that allowed her to turn it into a positive experience rather than a fight. Think about how you would feel if you believed someone--supposedly someone on your side--was going to hurt a child, let alone your child, to try to force you to do better, and you had volatile emotions that easily got out of control.

Meteora wrote:I think Bella's behavior towards Kate was entirely understandable and justifiable--Kate was threatening to hurt her child! Yes, she was frustrated and tired and wished that she could control the power, so Kate's remarks annoyed her. She was trying really hard, and regardless of who you are, if you're giving something everything you have and people not only don't acknowledge that but in fact say you aren't trying hard enough, it's a frustrating and anger-inducing experience. But I thought she responded completely appropriately when Kate acted like she was going to shock Renesmee. Bella went into what my mom calls "mother bear" mode. Bella wasn't willing to make her daughter a test case for the experiment, and as her mother she should have the right to say no to Kate on that matter. This wasn't about Bella having her feelings hurt. This was about Bella protecting her daughter from a vampire who was threatening to hurt her, and Bella had every right to be furious. When I read that part I was actually angry at Edward for going along with it--Bella was a newborn and easily could have lost control. It was only her own mental strength that allowed her to turn it into a positive experience rather than a fight. Think about how you would feel if you believed someone--supposedly someone on your side--was going to hurt a child, let alone your child, to try to force you to do better, and you had volatile emotions that easily got out of control.

She clearly was not trying as hard as she could since after Kate provokes her she is able to project her shield way farther than any previous attempt. Her anger over Kate's remarks seemed over the top, considering they weren't condesending or anything and she even acknowledged that Bella had great potential. As holdingoutforjacob stated, Bella can't handle criticism and as a result overreacted. Her reaction to Kate's false threat to Nessie was more understandable seeing as she thought her child was in danger.

I don't think that Bella is mentally strong. She's often a slave to her emotions and never learns from her mistakes. Then again, she's never had to deal with anything that would allow her to gain that kind of strength in the first place. Any suffering she endures ends with her regaining everything that she was supposed to have lost, resulting in her forgetting about anything that she learned while suffering. This happens a lot when she becomes a vampire. She thought that she would have to give up having children, her family and friends and all other ties to her human life to be with Edward, but she gets it all back in the end.

On another note, has anyone else noticed that Bella is incredibly gullible? She always believes what people say without question (an example is when Edward tells Bella he doesn't love her in New Moon).

Meteora wrote:I think Bella's behavior towards Kate was entirely understandable and justifiable--Kate was threatening to hurt her child! Yes, she was frustrated and tired and wished that she could control the power, so Kate's remarks annoyed her. She was trying really hard, and regardless of who you are, if you're giving something everything you have and people not only don't acknowledge that but in fact say you aren't trying hard enough, it's a frustrating and anger-inducing experience. But I thought she responded completely appropriately when Kate acted like she was going to shock Renesmee. Bella went into what my mom calls "mother bear" mode. Bella wasn't willing to make her daughter a test case for the experiment, and as her mother she should have the right to say no to Kate on that matter. This wasn't about Bella having her feelings hurt. This was about Bella protecting her daughter from a vampire who was threatening to hurt her, and Bella had every right to be furious. When I read that part I was actually angry at Edward for going along with it--Bella was a newborn and easily could have lost control. It was only her own mental strength that allowed her to turn it into a positive experience rather than a fight. Think about how you would feel if you believed someone--supposedly someone on your side--was going to hurt a child, let alone your child, to try to force you to do better, and you had volatile emotions that easily got out of control.

no one's disputing she had the right to be furious - it's what saved them all in the first place. but she WASN'T trying hard enough, she DIDN'T have enough motivation, and all kate did was give her some.

i'm just saying that no one had a right to be angry with kate. kate counted on bella's reaction like that. if she hadn't reacted to that so much, it's not like kate would have shocked nessie. nessie was in NO danger of becoming a "test experiment". i'm surprised you don't see that.

but it WAS silly of bella to actually believe that kate would hurt nessie. edward knew she wouldn't. that's why he went along with it. of course it was necessary for bella to believe it could happen AT THE TIME. however anyone else should have realized what was REALLY going on, and bella should have realized that as soon as it was over.

Auctorita wrote:On another note, has anyone else noticed that Bella is incredibly gullible? She always believes what people say without question (an example is when Edward tells Bella he doesn't love her in New Moon).

Most of the reason she didn't believe Edward loved her when he said he didn't was because she never really, I don't know, expected him to love her. She thought she was too average and she wasn't good enough for him and she was too insecure.

Auctorita wrote:On another note, has anyone else noticed that Bella is incredibly gullible? She always believes what people say without question (an example is when Edward tells Bella he doesn't love her in New Moon).

yes she is. when Jacob tells her he's going to die if she doesn't kiss him. i was like "YES, please go jacob" but then she went all nice hearted and asked him to kiss her, grawrrrr